psych exam 3: language

language

system of communication using sounds and/or symbols according to grammatical rules

difference between language and communication

All language is communication, but not all communication is language

Language is a rule-based, symbolic system unique to humans that lets us express infinite and abstract ideas, while communication is any exchange of information, even simple signals like gestures or expressions

EX: communication can be pointing, sending emojis, facial expressions, body language, eye gaze

language characteristics (4)

1. symbolic

2. structured and complex

3. combinatorial

4. universal

How is language symbolic?

1. words/signs have no natural link to their meanings; we learn the associations

2. it can refer to things outside our immediate environment

   • other forms of communication (EX: pointing, eye gaze) can’t do that 

How is language structured and complex?

It is organized by shared rules (but we often can’t say what the rules are)

• grammar, syntax, etc

How is language combinatorial?

It allows us to articulate an infinite number of ideas

Evidence that language is universal (3)

1. Every known human culture has language

2. Every known language has complex grammar with similar elements

• EX: nouns and verbs, subjects and objects 

3. Across cultures language development follows very similar timelines (spoken and signed as well!)

primer on linguistic vocab (PPMSS)

• Phonemes: the basic sounds of spoken language 

  • /n/

• Morphemes: the smallest language units that have meaning

  • -s (plural), -ly (manner of doing something)

• Semantics: the meanings of words

• Syntax: the system of rules that governs how words combine into phrases and how phrases combine into sentences

  • EX: fact that you put -s at end of word and not beginning

• Pragmatics: having to do with the meaning and/or intended meaning of utterances in context

generating speech vs human anatomy

Anatomy of the human vocal tract enables speech but comes at a cost

• You cannot breathe and speak at the same time → you will choke

Order and typical timing of milestones in the first year of language development

Timeline of Speaking

Age	Type of Sound Made
~6-8weeks	cooing (vowel sounds)
2-6 months	Gradual introduction of consonant-like sounds
6-8 months	Canonical babbling (dadada or nanana)
~11 months	variegated babbling (dababi, with prosody)

true or false: physical maturation of vocal tract and exposure to language determines rate of language development

false

Findings of deaf babies + what it shows about language acquisition

• scientists observed deaf babies → deaf babies learning sign language show the same production timeline as babies learning spoken languages. Instead of babbling with their mouths, they babble with their hands

• language exposure does not equate to learned language

Essentially: they do canonical babbling/variegated babbling with their hands on the same timeline as spoken babies

perceptual narrowing

ability to tell sounds (phonemes) apart

• 0-6months: babies can distinguish phonemes from all languages

Over months 6-12, babies lose the ability to detect difference between phonemes that do not occur in their target languages

EX: “Blanc” vs “blond”, rice VS lice (japanese vs american baby)

• French-exposed 12-month old: sounds different

• English-exposed 12-month old: sounds the same

critical/sensitive period

certain periods during development when the brain is especially plastic in particular ways; sensitive to being “programmed” by information in the environment

parsing

telling words apart; telling apart the “boundaries” between the words

• Where does one word begin? Where does one word end?

• EX: movie example (movie in your language vs not your language)

identifying words and learning what they mean in babies (2) 

1. parsing

2. fast-mapping

3. differences in intonation: (EX: of words at the beginning vs end of a sentence have different intonations) help babies to structure the linguistic input

fast-mapping

how babies make assumptions on new words they hear based on the knowledge of words that they know/other world knowledge

• EX: baby knows the words dog, hat, and cup. you ask baby for a platypus from the four objects. even if baby doesn’t know what platypus is, baby can give you the platypus

Incremental parsing

people make guesses about the structure and meaning of an utterance as they hear/read it, rather than waiting until the end

• these guesses depend on what they know (the context, past frequency of a word being used in a particular war, etc)

significance of incremental parsing

Issue: this leads to us making incorrect assumptions

Examples

• The horse raced past the barn fell

• The dog found in the park was covered in mud 

• The old man the boats 

Overgeneralization

overapplying new grammar rules

• EX: I pet the bunny’s feet” VS “i petted the bunny’s foots” 

Why can learning grammar look like regress at first?

Progress can look like regress: when young, they don’t yet know the rules. As they learn the rules, they apply them too broadly at first (~10% of the time)

Across development, what comes first? Semantics or Syntax?

semantics (words + their literal meanings) come first and then syntax builds on it

syntactic rules

grammar rules that determine how words can be combined and ordered to form meaningful sentences in a language

What happens without language input? Describe the case of Genie

• Discovered at age 13

• Spent her entire life up to that point locked in a room

• Received almost no exposure to language in her first 13 years of life

Genie had a hunger for learning. She learned a LOT of semantics (basic words that labeled things). However, despite learning so many words in such a short amount of time, Genie was unable to string together English sentences fluently. She was unable to learn the syntatic structure of English language (EX: question words like who what when and grammatical words such as and, the, etc)

• Able to convey meaning

• Has a temporal sequence

• Lacks grammatical structure

What did Genie’s case teach us about language acquisition?

Genie acquired word meanings (semantics) but never acquired grammar (syntax)

This provides evidence that: 

• There is a critical (or sensitive) period for syntax development 

• There may be different systems in the brain for handling word meanings and grammatical rules

What are the two areas important for learning language + what do they do? What hemisphere are they in?

1. Wernickes area

• Understanding speech/metaphors

2. Broca’s area (producing speech)
   

In the left hemisphere

aphasia

language disorder associated with deficits in language comprehension and/or production 

**wernickes and brocas work TOGETHER to enable language production/understanding

Wernicke’s Aphasia

grammatical makes sense but doesn’t make semantic sense (lacks meaning)

• Comprehension diminished 

• “Fluent” expression (but often does not make sense)

• Difficulty producing utterances that are meaningful

Broca’s Aphasia

speech is very broken but can be pieced together

• Comprehension mostly spread

• “Nonfluent” expression

• Difficulty finding words and putting them together

Creole language + its significance

a stable natural language originating from a mixture of different languages

• Groups speaking different languages want to communicate

• They develop a mix of languages, a pidgin. It is very basic and lacks complex grammar

the language only becomes a language when the children pick up the language as well

• Speakers of the pidgin have children. The children are exposed to the pidgin language. Their brains automatically enrich the grammar. They start to creolize the pidgin.

inferences about syntactic structure

inference is made partly on knowledge of syntax and pragmatics

pragmatics

can help to disambiguate → phrases are generated by syntax but some syntactic structures are still ambiguous

• Drunk gets Nine Months in Violin Case

• Complaints about NBA Referees Growing Ugly

• NJ Judge to Rule on Nude Beach

These are all technically ambiguous but we know they don’t mean literally what they say. We use assumptions based on our current knowledge to understand them correctly

4 ways to prevent/resolve ambiguities + what they are

quantity: be as informative as necessary

quality: speak the truth

relevance: be relevant

manner: be clear, brief, unambiguous

difference between critical and sensitive period

critical: if it doesn’t happen in that window, skill will never properly develop; narrower window

sensitive: broader window; easier to learn in window but still possible later

Critical periods in language development

early exposure is essential for mastering grammar, accent, and fluency

EX: genie

Chaser the Border Collie

knows labels for over 1000 different toys (has the largest tested memory of any non-human animal)

2 types of languages in animals

1. discrete (digital): symbolic, categorical

2. gradient (analog): continuous, emotional connection

• Waggle Dance of the Honeybee

• Bees, bears, and most other nonhuman animals have analog systems of communication 

Case of Nim Chimpsky

Nim was taken from his mother right after birth and lived with a linguist. He was raised by a human family + treated as if he was child. He ate meals with them, wore clothes, and was taught sign language/communicated with. 

• goal: to see if a chimpanzee could learn to communicate using sign language if raised in a nurturing, language-rich environment (like human child)

  • He learned over 125 signs for things like “eat,” “drink,” “play,” “me,” and “Nim.”

• Learned to sign stuff to communicate

  • 3 sign combinations

    • Banana me eat

    • More eat Nim

Despite Nim learning a lot of signs/basic words, Nim never reached a mastery of language that humans have. His longest recorded sentence was “give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you”

What did we learn from Nim Chimpsky about language in nonhuman animals?

• Nonhuman animals communicate 

• Nonhuman animals can learn some word meanings in human languages (semantics)

• Nonhuman animals do not appear to be able to acquire the grammar of human language (syntax)

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (what is it? strong and weak version?)

idea that the language you speak influences how you think and see the world

Strong version: Linguistic Determinism

• Language determines what it is possible to think. Thoughts are determined by the particular structure and vocabulary of one’s language(s)

Weaker version: Linguistic Relativity

• Thoughts can be influenced by the structure and vocabulary of one’s language(s)

Experiment that helps support the strong version of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Experiment 1

Task A: explicitly requires language processing

• Q: Does the sentence match or not match the image? 

• A: the king is entertaining the jester

Task B: does not explicitly require language processing

• Q: Is the sentence plausible or implausible?

• A: yes vs no 
  

Questions that the researchers asked

1. Do people use language for task B?

• Yes. In typical participants, both tasks (comapred to control tasks) were associated with activation in typical language regions

2. Do people need to use language to succeed on task B?

Referring to the previous experiment: How did people with global aphasia due to damage to language regions do? How did these patients do in the same task as typical people? 

Patients with severe language deficits performed extremely well on Task B, suggesting that language is not necessary for (at least this sort of) thought

Experiment that helps support the weak version of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis + what it showed

Q: Are people who speak languages with more color terms better at telling colors apart?

Color Perception Experiment

Russian has distinct color labels for light and dark blue. English does not. Do Russian speakers and English speakers perceive blues differently?

• Both blues fall within the same (Russian) color category

• The two blues belong to different (Russian) color categories 

Experiment Results

English Speakers: same speed to respond when pairs belong to the same russian color categories and to different russian color categories

Russian Speakers: slower to respond when pairs belong to the same russian color categories than when they belong to different russian color categories

What does this show? supports the idea that language shapes (but doesn’t control) thought

What do these experiments prove in terms of the relationship between language and thought?

Language can influence how we think BUT it doesn’t limit or define what we’re able to think

combinatorial nature of language

we combine smaller units using rules → makes it possible to produce infinite new sentences (novelty) while also allowing repetition of familiar ones

consequences for the novelty / repetition of utterances in language

• can lead to ambiguity and misunderstanding

• repetition can cause predictability and loss of expressiveness

true or false? language influences but does not determine thought, and thought can happen without language

true

maturation vs experience impact on language acquisition

• AKA nature VS nurture

• some parts of language (grammar + developmental timing) are driven by maturation

• others (like vocabulary, accent, and language choice) depend on experience and exposure

evidence for maturation vs experience on language acquisition

• maturation: babies tend to reach same language milestones around the same time + timeline (even w/ ASL)

• experience: children who are more exposed to language tend to learn more/faster (larger vocab + faster learning)

Key differences between how one learns a language as a young child vs as an adult

• kids: learn language naturally/ implicitly during critical period

  • achieve native-like fluency,

• adults: learn consciously and effortfully

  • learn more quickly than kids at first but with less complete mastery in pronunciation and grammar